Translation of Poem by ANNA AKHMATOVA, "July, 1914" Июль 1914

Anna Akhmatova, 1921

Anna Akhmatova

(1889-1966)

Июль 1914

        

1

Пахнет гарью. Четыре недели

Торф сухой по болотам горит.

Даже птицы сегодня не пели,

И осина уже не дрожит.

Стало солнце немилостью Божьей,

Дождик с Пасхи полей не кропил.

Приходил одноногий прохожий

И один на дворе говорил:

«Сроки страшные близятся. Скоро

Станет тесно от свежих могил.

Ждите глада, и труса, и мора,

И затменья небесных светил.

Только нашей земли не разделит

На потеху себе супостат:

Богородица белый расстелет

Над скорбями великими плат».

2

Можжевельника запах сладкий

От горящих лесов летит.

Над ребятами стонут солдатки,

Вдовий плач по деревне звенит.

Не напрасно молебны служились,

О дожде тосковала земля!

Красной влагой тепло окропились

Затоптанные поля.

Низко, низко небо пустое,

И голос молящего тих:

«Ранят тело твое пресвятое,

Мечут жребий о ризах твоих».

20 июля 1914

Слепнево

Literal Translation

July, 1914

1

There’s a smell of burning. For four weeks

The dry peat of the swamps has been on fire.

Not even the birds have sung today,

And the aspen no longer trembles.

The sun has become [an instrument of] God’s disfavor,

No rain has sprinkled the fields since Easter.

A one-legged transient has arrived,

And alone in the courtyard he says:

“Terrible times are drawing near. Soon

Fresh graves will crowd out the earth.

Famine, earthquakes, pestilence are in the offing,

And the heavenly spheres will be in eclipse.

But the Evil One shall not dismember our land

For his own amusement;

The Mother of God will spread a white veil

Over all our great tribulations.”

2

A sweet smell of juniper floats

From the burning woods

Soldiers’ wives moan over the lads, 

Widows’ lamentations sound throughout the village.

For good reason were prayer services held,

The earth yearned for rain;

The trampled-down fields

Were warmly sprinkled with red moisture.

Low, so low hangs the empty sky,

And the voice of a prayer is soft:

“They wound Thy most holy body,

They cast lots for Thy raiment.”

                                                     July 20, 1914

                                                     (Village of) Slepnyova

Literary Translation/Adaptation by U.R. Bowie

July, 1914

1

The air reeks with smolder. For all of four weeks  

Dry peat in the bogs has been burning.

Even the birdsong is mute and discreet,

And the aspen tree’s tremble lacks yearning.  

Sunlight that sears speaks of Godly disfavor,

Not a sprinkle of rainfall since Easter.

In the courtyard alone stands a querulous raver,

A one-legged transient preacher.   

“Gruesome and hideous days are at hand;

The earth will be rife with fresh graves;

Pestilence, famine will lay waste our land,

Eclipses and earthquakes, pandemics in waves.

But the Foul Fiend who revels in earthly distress

Will not bring our homeland disaster.

The Mother of God in her grace and largesse

Will shelter us under Her veil alabaster.”

2

Smoldering juniper wafts its sweet scent

From woods that are burning nearby.

Soldiers’ wives tearfully weep and lament,

Widows-to-be raise a long keening cry.

Priests chanted evensong vigils of prayer,

For the dry earth was gasping with thirst.

Trampled-down fields lay wreathed in despair,

As a red-shrouded mist hung dispersed.

Low-hanging clouds in a sky dire and vacant,

A praying voice softly declaimant,

“They’ve ravaged Thy body so pure and complaisant,

And now they cast lots for Thy raiment.”

Translator’s Notes

King James Bible

Psalm 22: 18  “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”

John 19: 23-24  “Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat . . . They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots.”

Beginning of WW I

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo occurred on June 28, 1914, and this act set in motion events that inevitably led to the major European powers declaring war on one another.

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia a month later, July 28, 1914

Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914

In notes on the internet, K.M. Polivanov (“Three Comments on Annotating A. Akhmatova’s Texts”) points out that the St. Petersburg newspapers for the end of June and beginning of July, 1914, made frequent mention of the drought, and of the problem of dry peat burning in the bogs.

On Aug. 21, 1914, only three weeks after the beginning of the war in the European part of Russia, the prophecy of the one-legged transient was fulfilled, when the sun went into total eclipse.